Review: The Immortal Rules

Reviewed by Jen

I am not usually a YA reader, but I really enjoyed this book a lot. It’s dark and gritty… set in a post-apocalyptic world, where vampires lord over humans like cattle. The main character, Allie, begins her journey as a human, living off-grid in the slums outside a vampire city. But after she is nearly killed by the zombie-like Rabids who live outside the wall of her civilization, she is given the choice between death and becoming a vampire. She chooses to become one of the monsters she has always loathed.

The book is divided into four parts, following Allie’s evolution and the progression of her story. From her life as a scavenger, to her lessons as a new vampire, to her attempt to find a new life away from the only home she has ever known.

One of my biggest complaints among the YA books I have read is that the heroines are so often naive, overly innocent, vapid, or lovestruck. Allie is none of those. She is a survivor. And she makes no apologies for it. She adapts; she is resourceful. But in a world where most of the humans have lost their humanity, she has not… and she somehow manages to maintain that humanity even after she becomes a vampire. It’s made all the more-compelling by the fact that her nature, her instinct, fights against her conscience. It would be easy to make her all good or all bad, but she isn’t. She struggles; sometimes she falls; but she ultimately refuses to give in to the inevitability of becoming a monster.

There’s a strong cast of supporting characters, all three dimensional and richly drawn. Like the vampire Kanin who transforms Allison and teaches her how to survive. Or Zeke, the kind, almost-love interest, trying to help lead a ragtag group of humans to a new life. Their interactions with Allie help shape her, and I am just as interested in how their futures play out as I am in hers.

The world building is very well done too. I found it easy to fall into it from the very beginning, yet new layers are continually uncovered as the story unfolds. It’s a pretty bleak existence, but it’s that contrast that allows us to see just how special people like Allie and Zeke really are.